Dr Johanna Vos of the School of Physics has been awarded the prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her research project “Exometeorology: Probing Extrasolar Atmospheres” (Exo-PEA). The grant draws funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme which enables exceptional new scientists to pursue research in their most promising projects. The funding will go towards the costs of the research for a period of five years up to an amount of €1.5M. Trinity News was lucky to be able to chat with Dr.Vos about the details of her research, what this grant means to her, and how College’s astrophysics research is evolving today.
Vos entered Trinity in 2010, on the undergraduate general science programme, as it was then. Her sights had originally been set on chemistry, however, upon beginning the degree she found herself gravitating instead towards physics. Her passion for research in that area was cemented after a stint of hands-on observation work as part of her capstone project in astrophysics. She then followed the path of astronomical research, completing her PhD in Edinburgh. Vos even went on to hold a postdoctoral fellowship in astrophysics research at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; her self-proclaimed “dream job” she tells us with a laugh. It was through this position that Vos began her career in observational astronomy, investigating exoplanets and other exotic celestial objects beyond our solar system.
Returning to Trinity just last year, Vos has now focused her attention on creating her very own research team, right here at home.
Despite her stellar career in New York City, Vos tells us that she always “had [her] sights set on coming home” adding: “the prospect of getting a job here [at Trinity] was pretty amazing”. Returning to the university just last year, Vos has now focused her attention on creating her very own research team, right here at home. The Exo-PEA research team at Trinity investigates “the study of worlds beyond our solar system” Vos tells TN. This research resides in an area of astronomy known as exometeorology, the study of weather systems on far away exoplanets.
Brown dwarfs are the main focus of Vos’s team because they have very similar atmospheric dynamics to exoplanets but are much more easily observed due to the fact that they do not usually orbit a star.
The term ‘exoplanet’ refers to any form of planet that orbits a star outside of our solar system; most exoplanets that we have discovered so far exist in a small but distant region of the Milky Way galaxy. Vos’s team studies data obtained from directly imaging these objects using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Direct imaging in this way allows scientists to gather powerful information using photons from the atmospheres of these celestial objects, a relatively new technique. For exoplanets within a solar system of their own, it can be difficult for scientists to gather data from their atmospheres due to the overpowering light from their host star obscuring any direct images. However, there is a way around this problem: brown dwarfs. These are larger celestial objects that are of intermediate classification between a gas-rich planet and a star. Brown dwarfs are the main focus of Vos’s team because they have very similar atmospheric dynamics to exoplanets but are much more easily observed due to the fact that they do not usually orbit a star. Studying these systems in such a way allows researchers like Vos to obtain detailed information about the climate on these far-away worlds, observing winds, hotspots, and even aurora.
When asked about the overarching goal of this research, Vos explains the widespread search for life in our universe: “anyone working in the field of exoplanets is working towards the goal of finding signs of life beyond the solar system”, though she does add: “we are not nearly there yet.” Exoplanets are crucial to the search for extraterrestrial life. We can use their climate information to assess whether or not they are habitable. Planets which are likely to host such life-sustaining climates, as well as surface water or even living organisms exist in a habitable zone surrounding their star usually referred to as ‘the goldilocks zone’. Imaging planets of this type can be exceptionally difficult for a number of reasons, including their smaller size. This is where the ingenuity of research like that of Dr.Vos comes in. Development of climate models for these distant objects allow scientists to better assess the potential for exoplanets of this type to sustain life.
New, more refined telescopes such as the space-based JWST give scientists like Vos the most accurate data available on these directly imaged exoplanets.
The value of the ERC grant for Vos and her research team is that it will allow them to develop new projects in conjunction with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was launched in 2021. New, more refined telescopes such as the space-based JWST give scientists like Vos the most accurate data available on these directly imaged exoplanets. She can then use this to “sharpen [her] tools” for the search for more concrete signs of life such as biosignatures or molecules within these alien atmospheres. Vos believes that her research will be able to achieve this “once the technology gets us there.” With observational methods evolving at such a rapid pace, Vos and her team are constantly advocating for more efficient technological tools to carry out their work.
These awards highlight the recent burst of success within the astrophysics department
The ERC grant also allows Vos to build her research team and expand the work in exoplanet observation, broadening opportunities for new PhD and postdoctoral researchers at Trinity. Of course it is not only Vos’s team on this upward trajectory, there are many budding avenues of astrophysics being given the lifeforce to grow and thrive within the College. Dr. Vos is the newest among a handful of recipients of the starting grant in the department of astrophysics, with fellow Trinity professors Kate Maguire and Luca Matra winning the grant in 2023 for their research in supernovae and exocomets, respectively. These awards highlight the recent burst of success within the astrophysics department, with all three awardees having begun their work at Trinity within the last five years. Vos talks of an “exceptional environment for postdocs and postgrads to experience all these different strands of astrophysics that we are leading in.” With passionate researchers at the forefront of planetary and space science, Trinity is creating a new atmosphere of academic excellence within the school of physics that is vibrant and exciting. Vos remarks that it “feels like you’re part of something bigger.”
Ireland is home to a rich network of exoplanet research groups with a broad range of connections to research centres across the globe.
Talking to Dr.Vos while looking around at the various motivating “women in STEM” posters that sit on the shelves of her office alongside her degrees and accolades, one gets an overwhelming feeling of hope for the future of physics at Trinity. But we are not alone in our pursuit of a new, excellent, and inclusive physics community. Ireland is home to a rich network of exoplanet research groups with a broad range of connections to research centres across the globe. Some notable groups include the Astrophysics Research Center in Queen’s University Belfast and the Star and Planet Formation Group at Maynooth University who use similar observational techniques to the Exo-PEA group at Trinity with the shared goal of finding signs of life on distant worlds. Groups like these pave the way for talented new researchers to change the way shape physics in our society while also putting Irish planetary researchers at the forefront of the global search for life within our universe.
